No way to Treat the Grey Lady: Trouble at the New York Times

Is it me, or is the paper everybody loves to hate groaning under the weight of its own hypocrisy these days?

Bad enough that its parent company last month announced 500 job cuts, including 45 jobs in the Times newsroom, or that the paper had to be shamed into correctingerror-prone TV critic Alessandra Stanley's assertion that Geraldo Rivera nudged an aid worker out of the way to look good while helping a hurricane victim.

Or that another columnist, Paul Krugman, had to be shamed into admitting he goofed in reporting on the results of press-sponsored recounts of the 2000 Presidential vote in Florida. Or that editorial page editor Gail Collins had to admit in print Oct. 2 that three of the paper's highest-profile writers -- Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and Krugman -- all reported the incorrect assertion that recently resigned FEMA head Michael Brown and his predecessor Joe Allbaugh were college friends and/or roommates?

And now we have l'affaire Miller -- where an increasing number of pundits in print and cyberspace have complained that the New York Times isn't just getting its stuffing beat out on covering Judy Miller's role in the Valerie Plame investigation, but it has become maddeningly mute on the subject entirely. No opinion columns or editors commenting on other news shows.

In fact, the only quotes on Miller's talks today with prosecutors in the Times account come from a memo editor Bill Keller sent to the entire staff. So what do you think, dear reader? Has the NYT lost its status as America's leading newspaper? Or all those of us complaining about its missteps just upset that we aren't working there, too?